Richard Dix

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Richard Dix (July 18, 1893 - September 20, 1949) was an American actor. Born Ernest Carlton Brimmer in St. Paul, Minnesota, he had studied to be a surgeon, but he took most of the leading roles while studying drama in school, and after dropping out of the University of Minnesota after one year, got a job at a bank. He took up with a local stock company, which led to acting work in New York City.

He moved to Hollywood, where he began a career in Western movies. One of the few actors to successfully bridge the transition from silent films to talkies, Dix's best-remembered early role was in Cecil B. Demille's silent version of The Ten Commandments(1923). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Yancey Cravatt in Cimarron, in 1931, in which he shared top-billing with Irene Dunne. Cimarron was based on the popular novel by Edna Ferber, and took home the Best Picture award at The Oscars that year. Audiences saw Dix the next year in a futuristic yarn entitled, Transatlantic Tunnel that predicted things to come.

Dix later starred in The Great Jasper and Blind Alibi in the late '30s. Dix popular RKO co-star in Blind Alibi was "Ace, the Wonder Dog." In the 1940s he starred in The Whistler, the first of a series of seven "Whistler" films. Following the last of them, The Thirteenth Hour, he retired from acting. He died two years later in 1949 of a heart attack. He was survived by his three children from his two marriages.

Dix has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1610 Vine Street.